


Fright of Life and Death

by Invaderdoom78



Series: Vincturi [4]
Category: Fright Night (2011), Twilight (Movies)
Genre: Demon possession, Ghosts, M/M, OC’S - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:26:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23311585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Invaderdoom78/pseuds/Invaderdoom78
Summary: Peter get’s possesed and Aro does what he needs to in order to save his human.
Relationships: Aro (Twilight)/Peter Vincent
Series: Vincturi [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1665898
Comments: 3
Kudos: 20





	1. Chapter 1

“Who wants to live next to a cemetery?” Charley asked, looking out the second-story window of the house they were in

He and Peter had just finished up killing a single male vampire, who didn’t seem to be playing with a full deck of cards, judging by the large amount of crucifixions he had nailed to the wall and the scripture passages and prayers he’d hastily written on the wall in paint.

“Someone who’s not mentally stable” Peter said, putting away his equipment

“Think he was afraid of his ghost neighbors coming for a visit?” Charley asked, moving away from the window

“Probably!” Peter exclaimed, moving to look out the window with Charley “it looks like no ones visited that place in decades”

“They probably in hoards like angry not so passive-aggressive relatives coming over wondering why they never hear from anyone”

“Thank you for putting that not at all horrifying thought in my head”

“Pft” Charley huffed, looking over at Peter “how is that scary?”

“Do you know how to stop a pissed off ghost?”

“You don’t, because they aren’t real”

“Bullshit!”

“Whatever, Peter”

“Let’s get outta here” Peter said slinging their equipment bag on his back “this place is givin’ me the fuckin’ creeps”

“Yeah, you got me there” Charley agreed

After a five-hour-long drive Charley and Peter finally got back to the older hunters' house both of them immediately collapsed on the couch, exhausted from the drive.

“We need to put back the weapons” Charley said, head flopping back on the couch

“I drove up and back, you do it” Peter said, slouching further into his couch

“Ugh” Charley groaned loudly “FINE!”

Literally rolling off of the couch and onto the floor, Charley got up and shuffled over to the bag, picking it up haphazardly enough for a box to fall out of it.

“The fuck’d that box come from?” Peter asked, looking at the intricately hand-carved oak box that was now laying on his floor

“I think I saw it back at the vampire's house” Charley said getting a better look at the box “I think it was by the epicenter of the wall writing”

“How’d it get in the bag?” Peter asked as Charley picked it up

“Ghosts?” Charley asked with a shrugged

“Alright, dickhead”

“It’s stuck” Charley grunted, trying to pull open the box’s lid “do you have a knife or something I can use to pry it open with?”

“In the kitchen” Peter said

Shuffling back to the kitchen Charley searched through several, pretty much empty, drawers until he found one that was full of what looked like all of Peters's silverware. On top of the pile sat a butcher knife that looked like it would be perfect for the task at hand. Setting the box down on the counter Charley shoved the knife between the gap of the lid and popped it open, freeing the small nails that were poking out of the lid, like someone had tried to make sure the box stayed shut, but underestimated the length that the nails needed to be.

“What the fuck was in this box?” Charley asked, noticing that the inside of the lid had been scratched all to hell, some of them so deep that it was a surprise they didn’t break through to the other side, it almost looked like something was trying to claw its way out of the confined space

“There’s no way that’s big enough for anything living to have been inside of it” Peter said, joining Charley in the kitchen

“Then what the hell are these?” Charley asked, pointing at the scratches

“I’m telling you it’s ghosts” Peter said

“Should we crack out the ouija board then?” Charley asked, raising both of his eyebrows

“Do you have one on you?”

“No” Charley said looking around for a notebook “but I can make one”

“Oh, I’m sorry” Peter said when Charley found what he was looking for “I thought you didn’t believe in ghosts” 

“I don’t” Charley said, ripping out a sheet of paper from the notebook Peter kept at the bar, scribbling the alphabet onto it

“Why are you putting any effort into this then?”

“Because”

“Because why?”

“Why not”

“I’m not following your thought process here”

“Come on” Charley pressed

“No, I’m not taking the risk”

“You’re no fun” Charley said grabbing a shot glass to use as the planchet

“I have a sense of self-preservation”

Charley blew a raspberry at him “What kind of questions should I ask it?”

“Ask it if you’re a bitch”

“Your mom” Charley said slowly, moving the glass around the paper

“Yeah” Peter chuckled a bit “real mature”

“It wasn’t me. It was the ghost!”

“Right. What else is the ghost telling you?”

“Let’s see” Charley said, looking back down at the makeshift ouija board “f-u-c-k-y-o-u”

They heard a door inside the house open and Aro stepped into the living room.

“Hello, Charlie” Aro said in a very monotone voice, he still didn’t like the younger hunter but had decided that he could at least be courteous to him since he was the only one who was watching out for Peter when he was out hunting, since it wouldn’t be wise to make Peters connection to the Volturi known

“I’ll see you later” Charley said, quickly grabbing his duffle bag

“You didn’t put the shit away, Charlie” Peter yelled after the younger hunter as he ran out of the house “Charlie!”

“How did your hunt go?” Aro asked walking up to Peter

“We got a ghost box” Peter said

“A what?” Aro asked, visibly confused

“Ghost box” Peter said, suppressing a yawn “we have no idea how we got it. It was just in the bag when we got back”

“How odd” Aro said noticing how tiered Peter looked “you look exhausted, dear”

“Yeah” Peter yawned “I’m going to bed”

“Before you do” Aro said, stopping Peter from going back to his room “give me your clothes so I can wash them for you”

“Sure” Peter said, stipping out of what he was wearing

Handing his clothing over to the vampire Peter walked back to his bedroom and put on a pair of sleep pants before flopping face down on his bed so he could sleep. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been asleep for but when he woke up it was dark and he was alone in the bedroom, but he could hear faint chanting coming from outside the room. Rolling out of bed Peter stepped through the threshold of his room and out to what he thought was going to be his living room, but he found himself standing in the middle of an empty field, a group of four cloaked people surrounding something on the ground. They were all quietly chanting in unison, but he wasn’t able to make out what they were saying. Taking a few steps closer to the group of people Peter felt the air slowly being stolen from his lungs as the wind around him began howling. Turning around he tried to step back through the door to his bedroom but the door had disappeared.

“Oh shit!” Peter exclaimed taking a few steps backward, bumping into something solid behind him

With a faint grunt, Peter felt himself bounce off of whatever was behind him. Whipping around he saw the tallest of the hooded figures standing directly behind him as the other three slowly circling around him as more figures came out of the shadows to trap him inside the ring of people. Suddenly his legs were swept out from under him and he found himself on the ground, his back having been slammed into the almost concrete-like dirt, leaving him stunned and his vision blurring. 

Waking up Peter’s entire body was aching, almost like he’d gotten into a fistfight and lost, and his limbs were far too heavy for him to be able to move them. As Peter lay in bed unable to move he could hear something dragging itself around the room, and it wasn’t a pleasant sound either because whatever it was made a very wet squelching sound as it moved. 

All he was able to do was look up at the ceiling as the dragging sound got closer and closer, as the sound of claws digging themselves into the wall as it pulled itself up the wall echoed throughout the room. Peter tried to lift himself off of his bed but it felt like there was an impossibly heavy weight on top of him holding him down; he couldn’t even turn his head to the side, the only thing he could move was his eyes. Utilizing the only part of his body that he could move he looked over to the side of the bed Aro sat on but found it empty. Upon realizing that he was alone Peter felt the onset of panic beginning to set in that was only made worse once he heard the squelching sound directly above him and, even though he didn’t want to, he looked up at the ceiling and saw a goopy black mass directly above him. As soon as he looked at it the mass began to almost jiggle as almost skeletal looking limbs stretched out of it and reached out for him until they were barely an inch away from his face. Grabbing hold of his head, the hands were holding him so tightly that it felt like it was going to crush his skull as the black mass plunged down at him from above.

Walking through the front door Aro removed his cloak, not hanging it up like he normally would as he needed to treat the bloodstain on the front of it. Folding it over his arm he made his way to the laundry room, laying his cape on the washer, and grabbing the stain stick, rudding at the blood until it vanished. With the stain no longer visible the vampire folded it neatly and set it with the rest of the laundry that needed to be done. Stepping out of the laundry room Aro saw Peter slumped on the couch and while he normally sat in odd positions, this seemed like it would be uncomfortable even for him. Aro knew that the original anniversary of his parents' deaths was coming up in a few weeks so he figured that there would be a bit of an increase in Peters drinking along with a bit of a negative turn in his demeanor, but something about the scene before him felt off.

“Are you alright, dear?” Aro asked, furrowing his brow

“I don’t know” Peter said on a gush of breath “I just feel... odd”

“Are you ill?” Aro asked, taking a seat on the couch next to his human

“... I don’t know”

“Let me...” Aro said reaching out to feel Peters forehead to see if it was warm or not

“What’re you doing?” Peter asked, leaning away from Aro’s hand when it almost reached his forehead “don’t!”

“You’re being ridiculous” Aro sighed, reaching out, trying to feel if Peter was warm again

“No” Peter yelled, jumping off of the couch

“Vincent!” Aro exclaimed, getting to his feet, grabbing Peters wrist

Despite what the majority of people believed Aro could choose when he wanted to use his abilities on someone and had promised Peter that he would never use them on him without his consent, save for when he had just woken up from a night terror and was unable to articulate what was wrong, but he could tell that this was a situation where he had no other choice. This time he saw nothing; no thoughts, no memories, only a black void with an oblong human snake hybrid skull-like face lurking in the shadows of his thoughts. Letting go of Peters's arm Aro looked at him in horror, not knowing what he’d just seen but he did know that his only option was to go and talk to Charley if he wanted to find out what was going on. Backing away slowly Aro waited until Peter wasn’t looking at him before snatching up his car keys and walking out the door. Glancing over his shoulder Aro made sure that he wasn’t being watched before getting in Peters's car and driving off towards Charlie's house.

“Hi?” Mrs. Brewster asked, opening the front door of her home

“Hello” Aro said “is this the Brewster residence?”

“Yes. Who are...” Mrs. Brewster almost asked before realization struck “oh, you must be Aro” she stepped aside “please come in”

“Thank you” Aro said with a polite smile, stepping inside the house

“So what brings you here?”

“Peter has been acting a bit odd the last few days and I was hoping I could ask your son about what happened on their last hunt”

“Well” Mrs. Brewster said, looking at her watch “he won’t be done with class for about fifteen more minutes and I have no idea if he’ll come home when he’s done or not”

“I don’t mind waiting”

“Well, can I get you anything?” Mrs. Brewster asked, looking like she was wracking her brain to try and figure out what the anything could potentially be

“No, thank you”

“Make yourself at home then”


	2. Chapter 2

About forty minutes later Charley came home and found his mom and Aro sitting together in the living room having a seemingly pleasant conversation together and he felt terror run through his veins. He knew the vampire didn’t like him and he even had a moment where he thought Aro was here to kill him, but considering that his mom was still alive he figured he was here for something else, but he couldn’t come up with any type of reasoning as to why.

“Hey Char” Mrs. Brewster said noticing her son

“Hi, mom” Charley said setting his backpack down by the door

“Come and sit with us” Mrs. Brewster said waving for her son to come over

Reluctantly Charley did what his mother told him and sat next to her.

“How was class?”

“Fine” Charley said, doing his best to make it look like he wasn’t purposefully trying to avoid looking at Aro

“Good. Well Aro came over to talk to you” Mrs. Brewster said getting to her feet “so I’ll leave you to it”

Please don’t go, mom. Charley thought as he watched his mom go upstairs

Aro sighed “I know this is rather awkward, but I can assure you that I am not here for malicious reasons”

“Then why are you here?”

“I’m afraid that there is something wrong with Peter”

“What?”

“I simply wish to know what happened on your last hunt”

“Uh... it went fine but the guy must’ve been paranoid because his lair was covered in crosses and he had this box, that we somehow picked up, and for some reason, he’d nailed it shut”

“The inside of the lid was all scratched up, correct?”

“Yeah”

“Was there anything else odd about the house?”

“It was next to a cemetery, which Peter thought was a problem, aaannnd there were a bunch of crosses on the wall. Why does it matter?”

“I’m afraid that something was attached to the box and has latched itself onto Vincent”

“How?” Charley asked “ghosts aren’t real”

“It’s not a ghost, but a non-corporeal demon”

“Why. Did you. Phrase it like that?”

“Did you think that vampires were the only beings of legend or myth that exist do you?”

“Yeah kinda” Charley said, sounding like he was having a lot of trouble believing what he was told but also being very aware of the fact that Aro was much older than him and if anyone knew what did and didn’t exist it would be him “so Peter was right? Shit! What do we do?”

“I need some evidence” Aro said quietly

“What kind?” Charley asked “do you mean like video because I bought some spy cameras and audio recorders a while back for a reason I forget, maybe if you get him out of the house I can hide them and we can look over what they catch”

“How long should it take you to set them up?” Aro asked only receiving a shrug from the young man “hm, how long will it take you to gather the equipment together?”

“A few minutes” Charley said standing up

“Are you able to set them up tonight?” Aro asked, getting up making a move that looked like he was going to touch Charlie

“No!” Charley almost shrieked, scrambling away from Aro’s range of reach “I’ll help but don’t touch me. Peter told me what you can do and I don’t want you reading my thoughts”

“Fair enough” Aro said clasping his hands together

Aro waited for Charley to gather up all of the equipment he needed before they both got in their cars and drove back to Peter's house, Charley parking about a block away and walking the rest of the distance to the house. Opening the front door Aro saw Peter sitting on the couch, in a much more comfortable looking positioning, watching T.V.

“Where’d you go?” Peter asked, looking back at him from the couch

“Do you not remember?” Aro asked, furrowing his eyebrows

“Remember what?” Peter asked, looking frustratedly confused “last I saw you we were talking about thinking I was sick and then you just up and fucked off”

Aro realized what was happening “I’m sorry, dear, I thought I told you I needed to step out for a bit and take care of some business”

“Oh, ok”

“...You know” Aro said walking over to the couch “I was thinking we should go out and do something nice tonight”

“Like what?” Peter asked, muting the T.V.

“We could go out for a nice diner, or a drive, or maybe see a film”

“...Alright”

About a half an hour later, the two stepped out of the house Peter and Aro walking out to the car, with only the vampire being aware of the fact that Charley was creeping around the side of the house slipping inside through the door the vampire had left unlocked for him. 

The two rarely went out around other people, normally they’d go out for a drive or Aro would force Peter to go on a walk with him so he could get some exercise. Thankfully since Peter lived in Vegas it didn’t really matter what time of day they went out together on the Strip because no one paid any attention to them, too distracted by the street performers, the shops, and the woman walking the streets in nothing more than pasties and thongs to notice anything odd about Aro. So that’s where they went, Peter parking in the cheapest parking garage he could find before they walked to the Strip and walked into the first restaurant they could find that wasn’t busy. After about ten minutes they were seated on the restaurant's balcony, so they had a perfect view of the fountain show across the street.

“We should take Jane and Alec out to a show some time” Aro said as he watched the water dancing

“What did you have in mind?” Peter asked, slouching back into his seat

“Do you have any suggestions?”

“The Blue Man Group” Peter shrugged “it may not be the classiest thing out there but it’s something children enjoy”

There was a pause in the conversation when the waitress came to take their orders; Peter getting a burger and beer as Aro got a small appetizer and water so as to not appear suspicious. Restarting their conversation Aro noticed that a nearby table of women kept looking at Peter and he could hear them talking about his human and how they were, he was hoping, joking about trying to steal him from the vampire. Peter seemed to pick up on his anger boiling up inside him and Aro felt his foot rubbing against his ankle getting his attention off of the woman and onto him.

“What do you wanna do after this?” Peter asked after he’d finished his food

“How about we see a film”

“There’s not really anything playing that I wanna see” Peter shrugged

“Come now” Aro said “there must be something you want to see”

“We can check out the RedBox down the street if you really want to watch something”

Aro wasn’t able to talk Peter out of wanting to rent something from a Redbox instead of going out to a movie theater. Fearing that this would not give Charley enough time to finish their plan Aro sent him a text letting him know about the change in plans thankfully he’d already finished setting up all of the cameras and audio recorders and was on his way out the door. Slipping his phone back into his pocket joined Peter back at the machine looking over the board of posters as the other looked through the Red Boxes library.

“When the fuck did they make a Banana Splits movie?” Peter asked aloud as he touched the movie's image

“Oh, Vincent” Aro said looking at the screen “that’s just mindless bloody garb. What about...”

“Too late” Peter said as the RedBox started whirling “the movie’s already coming out”

When they got back to Peter’s house Aro still wasn’t happy about the movie choice but held his tongue as they sat on the couch together to watch the movie.

“I don’t like the fact that both adult and kid me are in this movie” Peter said, right after (spoiler) Stevie's death

“Really?” Aro asked, quirking an eyebrow “how so?”

“I was a fan of this show for way longer than I should’ve been. Probably ‘cause it was the only thing I could watch growing up before, you know”

“Which one’s your favorite?”

“Nope”

“Come on”

“Not a chance in hell”

“If I tell you which one is my favorite so far will you tell me yours?”

“...Maybe”

“Snorky”

“Really?” Peter asked, looking genuinely surprised

“Yes”

“No way!”

“Your turn” Aro said, gently nudging Peter with his shoulder

“Don’t make me say it” Peter groaned

“Fair is fair, dear”

“Alright! It’s Bingo”

There was a crash behind them that was loud enough to cause both of them to visibly jump, Aro, reaching out to place a hand on Peters's thigh.

“The fuck was that?” Peter asked, straining to look down the hall the crash had come from

“I’m not sure” Aro said

Getting up the pair went to investigate the sound, slowly walking back to where the bang came from and found that one of the windows had a small crack in it. Stepping in front of Aro Peter walked up to the window, opening it up so he could see if what had hit it was still out there.

“That was an owl” Peter said sticking his head out the window “there’s a fucking dead owl out here”

“Oh, dear” Aro said, looking out the window with Peter at the dead animal

Aro waited for a few days before going back to see Charlie, wanting to make sure there was time for something to get caught on the cameras, and during this time he was trying to be extra attentive to Peter in an attempt to try and rein in his mood swings and help him deal with his night terrors, that had not only turned into a nightly occurrence but seemed to happen almost every time he closed his eyes. As much as he tried there wasn’t really anything he could do about them outside of trying to comfort Peter when he awoke and it was only made worse by the fact that he could see everything that happened in them. They were always the same, Peter alone in an empty field surrounded by hooded figures and he would always wake up in pain afterward.

Peter hissed in pain as he sat up in bed “Shit!”

“Are you alright, darling?” Aro asked

“My neck is really stiff" Peter said rolling his head

“Turn around”

Peter did as he was told and turned so that he was sitting on the edge of the bed, his feet placed on the ground. Walking on his knees over to his human Aro gently placed his hands on the back of his neck, watching carefully for any signs of pain as he mapped out the areas that needed the most attention before firmly massaging the pads of his thumbs into the back of Peters's neck, slowly working his way up from his shoulders to the base of his skull. When he reached the base of his human’s skull felt a small bump directly above his spine. Applying some more pressure to the bump Aro felt it twitching whenever it was touched like it was trying to get away from him and, despite his best efforts, that bump didn’t go away, but Peter seemed to relax a bit nonetheless.

“Do you feel better?” Aro whispered, wrapping his arms around Peter

“Yeah” Peter sighed grabbing the arms that were wrapped around him relaxing back into the embrace “thanks”

A few hours later Aro reluctantly left the house and drove down to Chraley’s so he could look at the recordings.

“Where did you get those scratches on your neck from?” Aro asked, when he entered the house, furrowing his brows

“What scratch marks?” Charley asked walking over to the mirror in the hall so he could look at the three bright red claw marks that were on the side of his neck “I was wondering why my neck burned”

“It’s been almost three days since you were at Vincent's and they look like they just happened” Aro mussed to himself

“Is that bad?”

Aro didn’t respond, he only gave a small hum before walking over to where Charley had set up his laptop. Despite the fact that he really wanted an answer Charley could tell by the look on the vampire's face that he wasn’t going to get one out of him. Glancing one more time at his scratches in the mirror he walked over to the couch and booted up his laptop, opening up the program that had all of the recordings on it, clicking open the videos for each room, arranging the screen so that they were all visible before pressing play. A majority of the recordings had nothing going on them as it seemed like the only places Peter spent his time was at the bar in his house or in the living room, and in the bedroom but there were no cameras back there. Though it didn’t really matter because Aro was always back there with him so he already knew what happened in that room. At first, it didn’t seem like anything had been caught, that was until Peters first temper tantrum, they could hear a deep scratchy voice telling him what to yell at Aro as the vampire tried to calm him down and what appeared to be shadows sliding over his arms so they could control his movements, shoving the other away from him. After that, there seemed to be a shadow-like figure that was constantly following right behind him as more and more floating white orbs began surrounding him.

“Well, what do we do?” Charley asked shutting down the laptop

“I do know someone who can help” Aro said softly “unfortunately I only know the general area that they live in not her addresses”

“Where do we start?” Charley asked

“North Carolina, I believe I know where her sister works”

As Charley packed up his laptop into an overnight bag along with some clothes, Aro called Peter giving him an explanation for his disappearance, the young man picking up on the worry in that vampire's voice.

“So?” Charley asked after about half an hour on the road, still trying to get comfortable with the situation at hand, wanting to come up with something to say to break up the tension in the car “uh, how-how did you meet them?”

“Well” Aro said pulling onto the highway “we met back in about 1856 when it became known to us that Elenor’s oldest son got married” he took his hands off the wheel to air quote the word married “to a vampire so we had investigated into it to assess whether the relationship was a threat or not but once we learned that she was a witch there wasn’t much we could do”

“If she lived back in 1856 how is she alive?”

“I wouldn’t go as far as to say alive”

“So she’s a ghost then?”

“Her spirit is kept in this plane of existence by her magic yes”

“Was she at least human when she was alive?”

“That depends solely on whether or not you consider a witch human or not”

“Yes” Charley said drawing out the word “what about her sister”

“They share the same mother so half of her is human” 

Charley didn’t want to know what that meant.

Aro had essentially floored it all the way to North Carolina and had made it in a little over twenty-four hour instead of thirty-six it should’ve taken, the car only stopping so they could gas up, get Charley some food, and let him use the restroom; it also helped that he’d fallen asleep about halfway through the drive and they were able to pull into the parking lot of a small shopping plaza a little after seven in the morning.

“We’re here” Aro said shaking Charley awake

“Wha-?” Charley asked waking up looking around “oh”

Getting out of the car the two walked into the grocery store and saw that it was empty, save for the woman standing at one of the registers.

“Excuse me” Aro said, walking over to the woman “is Elizabeth working today?”

“Yeah” the woman, Sandy, said, turning to look back at the wall behind her “she should be back there” she pointed at the door in the wall

“Thank you” Aro said

The door Sandy had pointed at opened and Lizzy (https://invaderdoom78.tumblr.com/post/613200792916246528/lizzy) stepped out, looking like a man on a mission, she stood at about 5’3” and her eyes a pale steely blue with her vein-like scars being more contained towards the stab mark on her chest, the longest vein barely reaching up past her jawline onto her cheek.

“I’m gonna stab your wife!” Lizzy said, pointing at Aro

“And why is that?” Aro chuckled, walking over to Lizzy

“Because she’s a bitch that’s why” Lizzy said unlocking the door that was separating them “come back into the office with me. I have things to do so it’ll be easier to talk back here”

The room that Lizzy had brought the two into was small with two large safes pressed into the back corner, a computer sitting on the counter that ran along the left wall, a thing that would count out money, and a stand to separate it out into. With a wave of her hand the two safes opened.

“So what brings you down here?” Lizzy asked pulling out the tills for the registers out of the safe, setting them in a row on the counter

“Peter….” Aro said as he and Charley shuffled around so they were standing by the safe, Charley leaning back against the counter opposite of the one Lizzy was at

“Oh” Lizzy interjected before the vampire could say anything else

“You know?”

"Of course I know" Lizzy said, putting the bills from one of the tills into the money counter "you told Sulpicia about it and she tells Eleanor everything and I always end up in the loop, somehow"

“Ah” Aro said “what exactly has she told you?"

"Only that he's been acting weird" Lizzy shrugged, jabbing at one of the buttons on the counter to keep the money going through it “but why would you come here instead of going to her house?”

“I don’t know Eleanor's address?” Aro sighed

“... Shit!” Lizzy exclaimed, separating out the bills and setting them in their labeled slots “I don’t know what her address is, either” she grabbed the notebook that was sitting on the counter “we live off the same dirt road, but on different streets and I have no idea what her’s is called” she tore a sheet of paper out of her notebook writing something on it with one of the pens from her pocket “here this is my address. Her house is the first turn off the dirt road but if you somehow miss it just go to my house and walk straight back into the woods and it’s maybe a five-minute walk, but she’s probably not awake yet since Sulpicia is visiting”

“Isn’t she a ghost?” Charley asked looking confused

“Yeah but she still has like a psychosomatic need to sleep, eat, and all that biological stuff”

“One more thing before we go. Can I ask you something?”

“Sure” 

“In my history class when we were learning about the revolutionary war the teacher talked about a creature that was responsible for killing a large amount of people when America was being colonized and after everything that’s happened today I’m starting to think that, if it was true, it wasn’t human so I was wondering if that was true or not”

“Really?” Lizzy asked looking like she didn’t believe him

Charley nodded his head in response.

“Yeah, that was me”

“How old are you?”

“Well, my mom was the one responsible for the colony of Roanoke’s disappearance and I think I was born not that long after they move inland so I’d say I’m somewhere around 400”

“You look like you’re barely older than me”

“I have a case of extreme babyface”

“You must’ve been pretty angry when you were younger” Charley said 

“No” Lizzy said sounding a bit like she was trying to suppress a chuckle as Aro smiled a bit “there was just nobody to stop me”

“What about your parents?”

“No idea who my dad is” Lizzy said putting the money back through the counter “and my mom and I got separated when I was around ten so I spent the majority of my younger years on my own” 

“It’s really a miracle she know anything at all” Aro chimed in 

“Exactly!” Lizzy said pointing at the vampire


	3. Chapter 3

The two left the store but didn’t immediately drive up to Lizzy’s house for a couple of reasons; one because Eleanor probably wasn’t awake yet and Aro knew it wouldn’t be a good idea to disturb her sleep and two because the car needed more gas in it otherwise they wouldn’t even make it halfway to the witch's house before it crapped out on them. So it wasn’t until about an hour later did they find themselves driving down the narrow road to Lizzy’s address, almost missing the turn off for Eleanor's house because of how many trees there were lining the dirt road.  
“This house is enormous,” Charley said looking up in awe at the building as the car stopped in front of it  
Picture it looking like the house Mr. Fischoeders from Bob's Burgers lives in but with three stories and being large enough to hold over 100 rooms, with a widow's walk on the roof. Getting out of the car the two walked over to the front door, the faint sound of viola and harp music filtering through the wood that stopped when Aro knocked on the door. With the sound of footsteps getting closer Charley felt himself getting more and more nervous, before today he never believed in the existence of supernatural creatures before, really only accepting that vampires existed because he was standing next to one right now. He could only imagine what was on the other side of this door especially since this was the house of the sister of a woman who so openly and unashamedly admitted to murdering so many, arguably, innocent people. His heart almost stopped when the door opened.  
“Hello, Eldritch” Aro said  
“Aro” Eldritch (https://invaderdoom78.tumblr.com/post/613204538197950464/eldritch-and-lilith) said, speaking in a deep almost hypnotic voice, standing at about 6’2” “please come in”  
Stepping aside Eldritch gave them room to come inside, closing the door behind them before clasping his hands behind his back and leading them further into the house. As they walked Charley couldn’t help but marvel at the old money feel that the building had to it full of antique furniture, mantles that were made out of solid dark mahogany, heavy velvet crimson drapes hanging from the windows, a floor made entirely of black and white marble, and decorative grey damask wallpaper glued to the walls. Though there were some modern-day commodities like the Roomba cleaning along the marble floors and the rather large T.V. hanging in the living room. There were also many paintings on the walls, a majority of them were of landscapes that had been painted in dulled down and darker shades of colors and the largest painting looked like it was of a family portrait with Eleanor, he could tell it was her because she looked very much like Lizzy having the same round face shape, eyes, and nose, and ten other children the oldest child looking like he was in his mid-twenties, the youngest looking to be around three. None of the children had any type of familial resemblance to each other and they sure as hell didn’t look like Eleanor, really the only one who looked like their mother was the three-year-old girl with silver hair; she had the same face shape and nose as her mother and aunt. Sitting by a harp not that far away from the portrait was someone, who he assumed was the young girl from the portrait since she had silvery hair.  
“Aro” Lilith said, standing up being about an inch taller than her aunt her heels clicking against the marble as she walked over to the vampire Her hair was a very wavy silver-white that reached down to her behind and curled up at the tips, she’d parted her hair to the left and it partially curled over her left eye, the shape of her eyes giving hint to the fact that she had some Asian heritage flowing through her veins, they were pale blue in color and just a shade above being white and had black smokey eyeshadow painted around them. She also looked to be in her early twenties with Eldritch looking a few years older than her.  
“Hello, dear” Aro said, taking both of Lilith's hands and kissing her cheek “how have you been?" he released her hands  
"Good" Lilith said, clasping her hands in front of her "I would like to ask you how you’re doing, but…” she looked away for a second “...they’re outside"  
Stepping out the back door Lilith and Eldritch lead Aro and Charley to a garden that was several feet back from the house. The garden was roughly the same size and shape as a football field with a foot high flat stone wall surrounding it that had a wrought iron scroll top arch placed in the entrance. Inside of the walls were large stepping stones that had been laid out along the paths through the garden, black mondo grass lining the edges of the paths. The garden had a multitude of flowers that were dark scarlet, deep purple, and black with a few unique plants growing alongside them; bat flowers, Voodoo lilies, doll’s eyes berries, bleeding tooth fungus growing around the berries. There were also a couple Weeping Willows scattered throughout the garden along with a large Wisteria tree near the far back corner that had several black baccara rose bushes growing around its base and with a few apple trees. In the center of the garden sat an Ancient Grecian style gazebo that had blackberry and raspberry bushes growing around the base of the structure. Stepping through the gate Charley quickly became distracted by the small koi pond full of black and white koi fish to notice the two women stepping out of the gazebo.  
“Hello, darling” a woman said with a Scottish accent said, Eleanor (https://invaderdoom78.tumblr.com/post/613208419479027712/eleanor) standing next to her at the same height as her sister and looking to be somewhere in her thirties   
Having his attention drawn away by the voice, Charley looked up from the pond at the two women and let out a very shrill scream with a look of pure panic and embarrassment gracing his face before he silently stood up, turned around, walked out of the garden and around the side of the house.  
“Oh, no” Eleanor tried not to chuckle as they watched Charley disappear (I imagine her sounding like Kitty Forman from That 70’s Show and I only mention this because she’s the only one I have a solid voice for)  
“Give him a minuet” Lilith said  
A few minutes later Charley came around the other side of the house and walked back into the garden, staring down at the grass.  
"I’m sorry” Charley said, refusing to look up at the vampire “when Peter said you looked alike I thought he meant you had, similar-looking noses or, like, the same face shape or something like that. I didn't think you were an exact copy of each other except you have boobs and he doesn’t"  
"Oh” Sulpicia said pinching Charley’s cheek “aren’t you just adorable"  
"I don’t like this" Charley whispered, still looking horrified “uh”  
"Call me, Davina" Sulpicia said winking at him  
“So” Eleanor said walking up to the young man and vampire “do you have anything for us to look at?”  
Scurrying in front of the group Charley quickly got to the gazebo and pulled out his laptop, setting it up so they could watch the videos before scurrying out and taking a seat on one of the benches that sat along the path as the others stepped into it, Eldritch taking hold of Lilith’s hand assisting her up the steps and over to her seat pulling the chair out for her so she could sit.  
“Are you alright out there?” Eleanor asked looking at Charley  
"I can hear just fine from here, thank you" Charley said looking very stiff  
"Here" Eleanor said walking over to one of her rose bushes plucking one of the flowers from it "eat this it will help you relax”  
Looking up at the ghost Charley took the flower bud from her and plucked one of the petals, taking a bite of it.  
“Can I have one of the apples?” Charley asked, feeling a bit better, pulling off a few more petals  
“Of course. You are more than welcome to anything you want here”  
Once Eleanor was back in the gazebo Aro hit the play and everyone, except Aro, crowded around the table so they could better see the screen; Eldritch resting both of his hands on Liliths shoulders as he stood behind her and Davina rested one of her hands on the table and the other on Eleanor's back as they watched the sped up recorded footage. Once everything that had been recorded was shown the laptop started playing the live video the hidden cameras were picking up showing them Peter taking a nap on the couch looking like he was either in pain or was having a particularly bad nightmare.  
"Well shit" Lilith said watching as some shadow figures slowly began creeping towards him, one of them looking like it was stretching down from the ceiling towards him  
"Yeah that is not good" Davina said as Eleanor faded away, a white figure standing over Peters sleeping form, gently petting his hair his face and body visibly relaxing under the gentle touch  
With the white spirits' presence, the shadows quickly retreated but the sound of something growling nearby could be heard coming through the speakers, but the white spirit seemed unaffected by the growling regardless of how aggressive it became or as a darker mist, twice the size of it approached. With no real trepidation or any reaction really, the white figure stood up and pointed the parasail at the black mist. Once the parasail was aimed at the mist it opened up and it was knocked back to the other side of the house and Peter woke up with a start, looking around the room in a panic but calmed down after a few seconds unlike normally as it usually took him at least fifteen minutes to calm down but normally it was much longer.   
"I can take a look around" Lilith suggested, muting the laptop as her mother reappeared “and see specifically what is going on”  
"You wanna drive all the way to Vegas" Charley asked  
"That’s not necessary" Eldritch said, his voice becoming echoed, his body slowly growing over seven feet tall and becoming completely silhouetted as the antlers grew out of the side of his head.   
He looked at Aro.  
"We just went out a few days ago and I fear he may grow suspicious if I try and take him out again this soon” Aro said, his eyes downcast  
"How about we get Jane and Alec to distract him” Davina suggested pulling out an almost ancient looking key  
Lilith started, unblinking, at the space before her for a minute before speaking “...That will work”   
Satisfied with the answer the vampiress walked to the back door of the house, putting the key in the lock, and turning it before stepping inside, coming back about fifteen minutes later with the twins trailing behind her as they walked back to the garden.   
“How long do you need us to get him out of the house for?” Jane asked   
“I’d say at least an hour but longer would be preferable” Lilith said   
"What do kids our age do?" Alec asked looking confused as just like with Aro, Peters bonding with them happened mostly within the walls of his house  
“Mandalay Bay has a pretty nice aquarium” Charley suggested with a shrug   
Holding out his hands Eldritch pulled the twins into the shadows of the gazebo with him, the two vampires appearing on the video a few moments later by the front door. Since the laptop was still muted they couldn’t make out what was being said but it seemed apparent that Peter was feeling conflicted about them being there, both excited that the twins were there but also looking like he wanted them to leave right now. Taking a seat on either side of Peter the twins tried to convince him to come with them out of the house, but he wasn’t having it. So they just grabbed him by the arms, easily overpowering him as they pulled him out of the house. One of them having to run back inside to grab his wallet and the keys to his car.  
“Darling” Eldritch said popping out of the shadows next to Lilith holding out his hand for her to take   
Taking her partner's hand, Lilith disappeared into the shadows and Eleanor and Davina went back to watching the laptop; Eleanor sitting close to Davina and leaning a bit against the vampire's side as they watched her daughter. As Lilith was investigating Aro was occupying himself by pacing back and forth along the garden's stone paths, wringing his hands together and constantly checking his phone to see if he’d gotten any messages from the twins as Charley busied himself with texting Amy in an attempt to distract himself.  
"You look like you’re gonna start crying" Lizzy said stepping over the stone wall  
At first, Aro didn’t hear her and it wasn’t until she was right next to him did he even acknowledge her presence “come here" she pulled the vampire into a hug before walking over to the gazebo joining her sister and Davina  
"Shouldn’t you still be at work?" Eleanor asked   
"I got a call about a family emergency. Christina’s there it’ll be fine" Lizzy said as Davina stepped away  
“How are you doing over here?” Davina asked walking over to Aro  
“I’m worried” Aro whispered   
“Don’t be” Davina said pulling him into a hug “you know that they’ll fix this”  
Eventually, curiosity got the best of Charley and he found himself walking into the gazebo and looking at the laptop. The only thing that was on the screen was Lilith standing in the center of the living room and, even though the camera wasn’t directly aimed at her face, they could tell that her eyes were closed and that it looked like black veins were coming out of the edges of her eyeshadow and they saw something moving away at the bottom corner of the screen. Opening her eyes she turned to look at the front door and Eldritch emerged from the shadows taking Lilith's hand pulling her through.   
“What did you find?” Aro asked rushing over to the two as Eldritch shifting back to normal   
“It’s a mess” Lilith sighed “getting rid of the others shouldn’t be that difficult. The problem is removing the demon. How do I explain this? It has a snake-like body that has, the closest thing I can describe them as are roots coming out of the tail that connects to the base of the skull of the spirits it's trapped and that’s how it’s able to control the spirits”  
"How was it able to take him over so quickly?" Aro asked   
“Through a combination of what had happened with his mother a month ago and that this demon has a pension for collecting spirits so it was able to find the part of Peters subconscious that was most affected by her and what had happened during his childhood and burrow its way into it”  
“How did it get to Peter in the first place?” Charley asked   
“It was trapped within that box you found and if you hadn’t opened it that demon would have been stuck in there for as long as the lid was closed” Lilith said   
"So this’s my fault?" Charley asked raising his eyebrows   
"It sounds like it" Eldritch said matter-of-factly   
“Eldritch!” Eleanor whispered harshly through gritted teeth   
"Fortunately I know the simplest way to fix this" Lilith said  
"How?" Aro asked looking hopeful until Lilith gave him a look "oh" he bit his lip  
"You don’t have to be there" Eleanor said gently  
"No. No, I need to be there” Aro said firmly   
"What’re you gonna do?" Charley asked as Eleanor began gently petting his hair  
While her niece was talking Lizzy was watching as Peter stepped into the video, followed closely by the twins who were looking very worried but it quickly turned to bordering on fear when a suspicious-looking Peter turned towards them and started yelling at them like he knew something had happened while they were gone.  
“Ok” Lizzy said as she sister looked over her shoulder  
“Time to intervene” Eleanor said motioned to her child, sibling, and the vampire pointing at them telling them what she was thinking “you go. Not you, honey” she grabbed Charlie when he went to walk over to the shadow man “you’re safer here”  
“What?” Charley asked sounding a bit angry “n-“ his sentence was cut off by Eleanor looking at him, her eyebrows raised, and he sat down   
Quickly becoming silhouetted again Eldritch pulled both Lilith, Aro, and Lizzy through the shadows to Peter's house who looked at them confused as the twins immediately ran behind Aro. Moving the twins closer to Lizzy, who let both of them grab onto her arm and hand, Aro approached Peter; speaking softly in an attempt to get through to him. At first, it looked like it was working and he reached out his hand so he could cup his human's cheek but Demon Peter grabbed his wrist, hard enough to actually hurt the vampire, and yanked him closer before throwing him into the farthest wall across the room.  
“So” Peter said, but the way he said it made it obvious it wasn’t him talking “this is what you bring to get your little human back. A couple of half breed cunts"  
"Ouch" Lilith said indignantly, placing a hand over her heart in feigned heartache  
“Ooohhh” Lizzy chuckled not even bothering to pretend to hide her amusement  
This obviously angered the demon inside Peter as all of the bottles and glasses that sat at the bar and widows exploding, liquid and glass shards going everywhere. Despite its seemingly best attempt at trying to scare them it hadn't even managed to get a jump out of the others and it snarled at them, but the demon did notice how they were worried about the glass on the floor. So it took a few steps forward so that Peter's feet were crunching over the glass, his body wobbling and jerking a bit with each step. The demon seemed please with the reaction this got out of them and turned to look at the kitchen; the largest knives that Peter owned levitated out of the drawers and pointed towards them; Aro holding out his arms to shield the twins and Eldritch stepped in front of Lilith, leaving Lizzy wide open for an attack. Demon Peter glared at them but glanced at Lizzy out of the corner of his eye and the three knives flew straight into her chest. She gave no indication that she’d been hit, no cries of pain, no clutching at the wounds, only a bit of jerking back from the impact, and the fact that she was bleeding. Looking down at the knives Lizzy didn't bother pulling them out all she did was let out a tiny burp like one of the blades had forced free a gas bubble.   
"Shit!" Demon Peter growled underestimating how much damage her half-human body could take, a look of horror slowly gracing his face as the demon inside him could feel the power radiating off of her  
After a blink of her eyes, Lizzy's eyes turned red and the scars on her chest spread across her upper body and it looked like you could see the blood flowing through her vein scars.  
“Watch this” Lizzy said sounding like a completely different person as her voice was so much more masculine and had become distorted  
Crossing her arms in front of her Lizzy flung out her arms and the house broke up into large chunks that floated into the air; including the parts of the floor that they were standing on. Taking some steps towards Demon Peter bits of the floor floated towards her creating a path for her to walk on. The demon was obviously starting to panic the closer that she got and it tried to move so that it was facing her, but she was much faster than it and managed to get behind Peter before anyone knew what happened and got him in a headlock that, even with his enhanced strength, it couldn’t break out of no matter how hard it thrashed in the awkward position, the knives getting forced deeper into her chest. Letting out a sigh Lilith seemingly teleported in front of Demon Peter and it tried to kick at her as she reached into the pocket in her skirt and pulled out a dagger that had a handle made out of a piece of a coyote's jaw and a waved eleven-inch long blade made out of obsidian. Closing her eyes Lilith’s hair floated up and when she opened her eyes again they were red and veins appeared in her eyes and on the side of her face.   
“Stop it” Lilith said in a double voice, one sounding like her normal voice and the other sounding metallic, to get him to stop trying to kick her  
Glancing behind her at Aro and the twins before she plunged the dagger deep into Peter's chest.   
Pulling out the dagger Peters eyes rolled back into his head and his legs buckled inward, Lizzy helping him down to the ground before he vomited up a thick black goo as the house turned back to normal, but even before the house was back to normal Aro and the twins were running over to Peter's side, Aro gently lifting his head off the ground, resting it in his lap.  
"He looked like his mom" Alec said looking worried as Jane gnawed on her lower lip  
“What do we do with that?” Lizzy asked looking at the jiggling mass  
“I really want to poke at it with a stick” Eldritch said  
“No” Lilith said, holding the wooden box the demon had been trapped in “help me find a way to get it back in here. I need like a plate or a bowl to scoop it up with”  
“Here you go, honey” Eleanor said handing her daughter a Tupperware container and it’s lid, the basement door open her garden visible on the other side of the threshold   
“Thank you” Lilith said taking the plastic, using the lid to scoop up the mass and transfer it into the box  
“Will you please take those knives out now?” Aro asked looking at Lizzy   
“Huh?” Lizzy asked looking down at her chest “oh yeah”   
Gently picking up Peter, Aro cradled him in his arms and stood up walking back to the bedroom so he could lay his human down overtop the covers on the mattress, gently brushing away the hair that had stuck to his sweaty forehead. It didn’t take long before the twins came in, Jane carrying a bowl of cold water and a hand towel and Alec with some bandages and rubbing alcohol. Taking the towel Aro dunked it into the bowl, ringing out the excess water, placing it on Peter's forehead before pulling the shards of glass out of his feet so he could bandage them up. With that done Aro grabbed the towel again and began to gently wipe the cold cloth along Peter’s face to help cool him down all the while Jane sat next to the bed resting her arms on it and her head in her arms and Alec sat on the floor next to his sister. As they waited for Peter to wake up the scent of burning sage filtered into the room and they could hear Lilith softly chanting get the fuck out.   
“What’s that smell?” Peter asked as he opened his eyes  
“You’re awake” Aro said placing the towel back in the bowl  
“Yeah” Peter groaned “what’s that smell?”  
“It’s sage” Aro said   
“I told Charley not to open that fuckin’ box”  
"He didn’t have a serving tray so I had to improvise" Davina said walking into the bedroom carrying a baking sheet that had a small kettle, cup, and a bowl of some kind of soup on it  
Peter looked at Davina looking like his brain was taking a moment to reboot.  
“Peter this is Sulpicia” Aro said as Davina set the baking sheet on the nightstand   
“Hi” Peter said as the sound of a louder than average conversation filtered back to them   
"What the hell is she talking about?" Davina asked looking towards the door  
"No" Lizzy said, walking towards the bedroom door "I think I'm onto something" she stepped through the door “are mermaids just vampires that live in the ocean because they're on the lamb or they just said fuck it I’m gonna be one with the sea"  
"I highly doubt that" Aro said  
"That's exactly what you would say if it was true" Lizzy and Peter said, pointing at each other as they finished their sentence  
"Do you know how big the ocean is?" Peter asked  
"There's no way in hell Demetri is going to be able to find them down there" Lizzy said “the oceans fuckin’ huge the ocean floor, 80% of this planet”  
"That's a ridiculous notion" Aro sighed  
"Yer lyin' to me. And to my new best friend!" Lizzy said motioning towards Peter with her head  
"Yeah!" Peter said holding out his hand for a fist bump that Lizzy quickly reciprocated  
"Yeah!"  
"Ok" Davina said leading Lizzy out of the room "let’s let him get some rest"  
Chuckling a bit Lizzy allowed Davina to take her out of the room.  
“Aren’t you gonna get jealous of her” Peter joked as Alec and Jane crawled into be with them, cuddling up to Peter  
"No" Aro chuckled, snuggling in closer to his children and human "she has no interest in you or really anyone for that matter"  
"What makes you say that?"  
"I’ve known her long enough to have gotten to know her rather well”  
“I always thought you guys would make good friends” Alec said   
“My stomachs killing me” Peter mumbled   
“Here” Aro reaching over to grab the kettle and poured its contents into the cup “this will help”   
“Thanks” Peter said taking the cup and taking a sip from it   
“How else do you feel?” Aro asked   
“I don’t know” Peter said downing the rest of the cup in one gulp “what else in on the baking sheet”  
“It looks like a bowl of chicken soup and some crackers” Aro said   
“That sounds great” Peter said trying to figure out how he was going to manage eating with the twins clinging to him


End file.
